Epic: Bulletstorm "Didn't Make Money For Us"

[Treblaine]

Isn't it amusing how so many people practically scream for new IP, yet when one comes out everyone refuses to buy it? Even if you've heard the game isn't that great, if no one ever buys new IP, they're going to stop making them eventually.

While it wasn't perfect, I thoroughly enjoyed Bulletstorm because it was a nice touch of old FPS when it wasn't all about "GRITTY REALISM LAWL HURR DURR."

Yea, a paint-by-numbers new IP that has only a few overused gimmicks to distinguish itself from the other gaggle of shooters out there.

The media hyped this an an antidote to modern FPS hegemonies, especially with People-Can-Fly's pedigree but it clearly ended up compromised trash that is a prime example of what they claimed not to be.

Bulletstorm stinks of a rushed product that didn't have a sound idea to begin with, it can't seem to decide what it wants to be and severely lacks polish of gameplay and pacing and especially story.

Bulletstorm has a "touch of old FPS" in the same way a dime hotdog is a real pork sausage: it acts like it is but it isn't, it's a mishmash of old crap that you'd only buy because of cheapness and convenience. I blame the publishers for this, PCF were good as independent, now under Epic their game is laden with Gear of war crap.

Money Grubbing publishers cannot hold us ransom demanding us to pay for shitty rushed new IP's when we want GOOD NEW IP's!!!!

 

[synobal]

I won't be buying bulletstorm or any more of epics games ever. Mostly because they've been real douches to their PC customers and I don't see any reason to give them any money to continue to do so. I hope it really didn't make them money. I hope that gears of war 3 ships with a game breaking bug and that the fan boys light fire to their offices. I'd also be happy just to see it flop though like the first two should have.

 

[KingTiger]

I walked into a shop on release day, specifically to buy Bulletstorm.

I saw "Games for Windows Live" on the box.

I left without buying it.

Every game with GfWL attached has been a complete disaster for me *beacuse* of GfWL, and I'm now boycotting it completely.

It has GfWL?

OK i'm not getting it either... Sorry PCF, I like your stuff but loose the shovelware please.

I had the same experience, saw GfWL and did not buy it despite its demo being really fun

 

[Treblaine]

Kill with Skill? Wasn't it already skillful to do these feats? It just sounded like random combo-ing for no purpose, and coldly at that. (Just a numeric value).

The funny thing is, that I SAW a friend play the game, and saw him throwing people, kicking them, and all sorts of stuff... and thought that looked fun! By then though I wasn't really looking for a new game.

In my opinion the real problem here was that the actual mechanics of the gameplay, which appeared solid, weren't ever put on display for me. I've had enough of generi-hype in my day, and there are enough lower cost alternatives, that I saw no reason to put big dollars out on this title.

The thing is of course those "amazing kills" took precisely zero skill, it was automated with aim assist and even an inconsistent bullet-time effect (surrounding action not slowed down) to kick it. Really all the kills seen in the 30 second trailer... that's pretty much all the kills in the game.

The points were a terrible idea, you can't quantify fun, you just need to find your own way to enjoy it. It was an utterly ham-fisted form of encouragement that came across as obnoxious and distracting, I can't just savour any of my kills my own way without some dumbass pun AND THE SAME SHITTY PUN OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!! It's like endlessly earning the same banal Achievement over and over again. GRRRRRR!!!

Painkiller.
That game took skill to get kills. Like the stake gun, that had a grenade-lob as secondary fire, if you launched a grenade then a split second later fired a stake, both would combine into a high speed shell that flies straight and explodes on contact. The painkiller had that projectile that tossed enemies away or towards your blades, also the beam thing itself. Not foregetting what a fast paced game it was with enemies constantly charging and trying to surround you and the ONLY health in the game was 1hp from every enemy killed, you needed much more skill to survive than bulletstorm's Bloody-screen-so-real rebounding health.

I hear a lot of people left PFC since Painkiller. Seems that they were important people.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

This is proof positive that people don't want half way game like Bullerstorm, either go full Gears of War, or go full Painkiller. DON'T make a compromised game like this one was.

 

[Metalrocks]

sounds weird. this game is hilarious. had lots of fun with it. sure its linear and not particularly challenging but still fun to play and surprisingly well optimized for the PC. enjoyed it more then other shooters which came out recently. surely better then this awful duke nukem. bulletstorm is at least funnier and better looking too.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

Bulletstorm struck me as really wishing that it was Armed and Dangerous, but not being very good at it. To be fair, it's hard to compete with a game that contained the land shark gun, possibly the greatest weapon in the history of gaming.

 

[SageRuffin]

I must've gotten a faulty version of the game, because I still enjoy it to this day. It may also be because I have the 360 version, so all this talk of Games for Windows live is of little concern to one. Long and short, I played the demo, liked it enough to buy the full game, played through it, and enjoyed every second of it. Here's hoping the developers do in fact create a sequel. I wanna wanna shoot more baddies in the balls and kick them in the face and laugh laugh as they scream in agony. Also, more Serrano.

Then again, I actually kinda liked DA2, Could care less about Final Fantasy, think fighting games take the most skill to play, and I listen to rap music, so I guess I'm just weird like that.

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

I actually really enjoyed Bulletstorm. It's still my #1 shooter on the 360. I thought general Sorano made an excellent villain. They didn't make him some bumbling idiot, or blindly evil to the point of unbelievability. They made him sarcastic, funny, and fun-to-hate (in a like-able way). You spend like 20 mins fighting this humongous godzilla-lookalike running in fear half the time, and he dispatches it with a witty comment and sly smile. I REALLY do hope they get around to making a sequel. If not for that stupid "pay us 10$ to play online because you got this used" I would have kept my Gamefly copy.

 

[infohippie]

Hmm, maybe Bulletstorm didn't do so well because there's already ten billion fucking multiplayer shooters on the market. Just a thought, y'know. Maybe, rather than releasing the same kind of game as everyone else has been for the last decade, a good business move might be to make something a bit different?

[sub]SO friggin' tired of shooters. I have absolutely zero sympathy for any developer whining that their newest shooter doesn't sell.[/sub]

 

[MiracleOfSound]

That is a pity. It's no secret round these parts that I was a big fan of Bulletstorm.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I hear a lot of people left PFC since Painkiller. Seems that they were important people.

Could end up being a good thing if those important people ended up at Flying Wild Hog.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Just a thought, y'know. Maybe, rather than releasing the same kind of game as everyone else has been for the last decade, a good business move might be to make something a bit different?

You didn't play the game, did you?

It did lots of things differently to other shooters.

I certainly don't know any other game where you can kick an enemy into the air, leash him with your electrip whip, wrap two grenades around his neck and fling him into his buddies causing a chain explosion, knocking another guy in front of you so you can fire a massive drill through his chest and send him flying into a cactus where he explodes into cartoonish giblets, raining down on the corpse of the guy whose balls you shot off and kicked his head off to relieve him of his pain as he watched his friend get devoured by the giant venus fly trap you blew him into with your quadruple barrelled shotgun...

 

[infohippie]

Just a thought, y'know. Maybe, rather than releasing the same kind of game as everyone else has been for the last decade, a good business move might be to make something a bit different?

You didn't play the game, did you?

It did lots of things differently to other shooters.

I certainly don't know any other game where you can kick an enemy into the air, leash him with your electrip whip, wrap two grenades around his neck and fling him into his buddies causing a chain explosion, knocking another guy in front of you so you can fire a massive drill through his chest and send him flying into a cactus where he explodes into cartoonish giblets, raining down on the corpse of the guy whose balls you shot off and kicked his head off to relieve him of his pain as he watched his friend get devoured by the giant venus fly trap you blew him into with your quadruple barrelled shotgun...

Yeah, I saw all that on Youtube. I don't care. It's still Yet Another Fucking Shooter in a market that's been over-saturated with shooters for years now. It doesn't matter that it does things differently to other shooters. There's a couple of big name shooters that will always get huge sales - CoD, Battlefield, and Halo - and all others will be fighting for the scraps.

If you want to sell a game, look in some other genre that's been fairly empty for a while. For example, space sims. That's a seriously empty market these days, and it's not like all the space sim fans have stopped liking them. Or complex RPGs that don't have an awesome button - there's another market that's not being served despite a huge fan base practically begging developers for new releases.
If no new shooters were released for the next five years it'd be a massive boost to the industry as a whole.

 

[punipunipyo]

Hey, I bought the collector's "Limited edition" for PS3, didn't even play yet, (because I actually finished the game on my friend's PC first, but i can't aim for squat with a pad, and so I am here still waiting... but I don't regret supporting this title, because i simply love how "fun" it is!~

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I didn't like the game, but I know a lot of people who really did. Kind of sad that People Can Fly's first AAA effort fell like this, but it's sure nice that Epic isn't like, cutting the cable and telling them to fuck off back to Poland.

This is the most honest review of the game methinks.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Anyone else confused by the fact that a game that failed to reach 300,000 sales in month 1 (implying they reached over 250,000; which is a HELL of a lot of people) is considered a flop?

I'm not saying I've never heard this before or that they just put that much money forward in making these, but indie games can deliver oodles of innovation with thousands (at the most) of dollars and these 'fail' with that much money... it makes me feel like people are focused on the wrong thing.